578 lines
20 KiB
Plaintext
578 lines
20 KiB
Plaintext
Discovery is dangerous . . . but so is life.
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A man unwilling to take risk is doomed
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never to learn, never to grow, never to live.
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-- PLANETOLOGIST PARDOT KYNES, An Arrakis Primer, written for his son Liet
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Behold, O Man, you can create life. You can destroy life.
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But, lo, you have no choice but to experience life.
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And therein lies both your greatest strength and
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your greatest weakness.
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-- Orange Catholic Bible, Book of Kimla Septima, 5:3
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%
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Secrets are an important aspect of power.
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The effective leader spreads them in
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order to keep men in line.
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-- PRINCE RAPHAEL CORRINO, Discourses on Leadership
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in a Galactic Imperium, Twelfth Edition
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%
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In the days of Old Terra there were experts in poisons, deviously clever
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persons who dealt in what were known as "the powders of inheritance."
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-- Filmbook excerpt, Royal Library of Kaitain
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%
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It is said that there is nothing firm, nothing balanced, nothing durable in all
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the universe -- that nothing remains in its original state, that each day, each
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hour, each moment, there is change.
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-- Panoplia Propheticus of the Bene Gesserit
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%
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Nature commits no errors; right and wrong are human categories.
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-- PARDOT KYNES, Arrakis Lectures
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%
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Before us, all methods of learning were tainted by instinct. Before us,
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instinct-ridden researchers possessed a limited attention span -- often no
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longer than a single lifetime. Projects stretching across fifty or more
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generations never occurred to them. The concept of total muscle/nerve training
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had not entered their awareness. We learned how to learn.
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-- Bene Gesserit Azhar Book
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%
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"Xuttuh" is a word that means many things. Every Bene Tleilax knows it was the
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name of the first Master. But just as that man was more than a mere mortal, so
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there are depths and complexities in the appellation. Depending upon tone and
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vocal inflection, "Xuttuh" can mean "hello" or "blessings be upon you." Or it
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can constitute a prayer encompassed in a single word, as a devotee prepares to
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die for the Great Belief. For such reasons, we have chosen this as our new
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name for the conquered planet formerly known as Ix.
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-- Tleilaxu Training Disk
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%
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A center for the coordination of rebellion can be mobile; it does not need to
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be a permanent place where people meet.
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-- CAMMAR PILRU, Ixian Ambassador in Exile: Treatise on the Downfall
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of Unjust Governments
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%
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It is said that the Fremen has no conscience, having lost it in a burning
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desire for revenge. This is foolish. Only the rawest primitive and the
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sociopath have no conscience. The Fremen possesses a highly evolved worldview
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centered on the welfare of his people. His sense of belonging to the community
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is almost stronger than his sense of self. It is only to outsiders that these
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desert dwellers seem brutish . . . just as outsiders appear to them.
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-- PARDOT KYNES, The People of Arrakis
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%
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An empire built on power cannot attract the affections and loyalty that men
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bestow willingly on a regime of ideas and beauty. Adorn your Grand Empire with
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beauty, with culture.
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-- From a speech by CROWN PRINCE RAPHAEL CORRINO: L'Institut de Kaitain Archives
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Military victories are meaningless unless they reflect the wishes
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of the populace. An Emperor exists only to clarify those wishes.
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He executes the popular will, or his time is short.
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-- Principium, Imperial Leadership Academy
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Organizational structure is crucial to the success of a movement.
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It is, as well, a prime target for attack.
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-- CAMMAR PILRU, Ixian Ambassador in Exile: Treatise on the Downfall
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of Unjust Governments
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%
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The universe is our picture. Only the immature imagine the cosmos to be what
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they think it is.
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-- SIGAN VISEE, First Head Instructor, Guild Navigator School
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%
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War is a form of organic behavior. The army is a means of survival for the
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all-male group. The all-female group, on the other hand, is traditionally
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religion-oriented. They are the keepers of sacred mysteries.
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-- Bene Gesserit Teaching
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%
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What is this Love that so many speak of with such apparent familiarity?
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Do they truly comprehend how unattainable it is? Are there not as many
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definitions of Love as there are stars in the universe?
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-- The Bene Gesserit Question Book
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%
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When you ask a question, do you truly want to know the answer, or are you
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merely flaunting your power?
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-- DMITRI HARKONNEN, Notes to My Sons
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%
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Some lies are easier to believe than the truth.
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-- Orange Catholic Bible
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%
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The strictest limits are self-imposed.
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-- FRIEDRE GINAZ, Philosophy of the Swordmaster
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%
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Special knowledge can be a terrible disadvantage if it leads you too far along
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a path that you cannot explain anymore.
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-- Mentat Admonition
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%
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Too much knowledge never makes for simple decisions.
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-- CROWN PRINCE RAPHAEL CORRINO, Discourses on Leadership
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%
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The desert is a surgeon cutting away the skin to expose what is underneath.
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-- Fremen Saying
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%
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The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth.
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-- Bene Gesserit Precept
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%
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Religion is the emulation of the adult by the child. Religion is the
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encystment of past beliefs: mythology, which is guesswork, the hidden
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assumptions of trust in the universe, those pronouncements which men have made
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in search of personal power . . . all mingled with shreds of enlightenment.
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And always the ultimate unspoken commandment is "Thou shalt not question!"
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But we do anyway. We break that commandment as a matter of course.
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The work to which we have set ourselves is the liberating of the imagination,
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the harnessing of imagination to humankind's deepest sense of creativity.
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-- Credo of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood
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%
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Humiliation is a thing never forgotten.
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-- REBEC of Ginaz
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Learn to recognize the future the way a Steersman identifies
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guiding stars and corrects the course of his vessel.
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Learn from the past; never use it as an anchor.
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-- SIGAN VISEE, First Head Instructor, Guild Navigator School
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The Unknown surrounds us at any given moment. That is where we seek knowledge.
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-- MOTHER SUPERIOR RAQUELLA BERTO-ANIRUL: Oratory Against Fear
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%
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Thinking, and the methods by which thoughts are communicated,
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inevitably create a system permeated by illusions.
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-- Zensunni Teaching
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%
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There is no reality -- only our own order imposed on everything.
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-- Basic Bene Gesserit Dictum
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%
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Immobility is often mistaken for peace.
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-- EMPEROR ELROOD CORRINO IX
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%
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To learn about this universe, one must embark on a course of discovery where
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real dangers exist. Education cannot impart this discovery; it is not a thing
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to be taught and used or put away. It has no goals. In our universe, we
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consider goals to be end products, and they are deadly if one becomes fixated
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on them.
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-- FRIEDRE GINAZ, Philosophy of the Swordmaster
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%
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Never underestimate the power of the human mind to believe
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what it wants to believe, no matter the conflicting evidence.
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-- CAEDMON ERB, Politics and Reality
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%
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It is the Atreides way to be examples of honor for our children,
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so that they may be the same for their own progeny.
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-- DUKE LETO ATREIDES, First Speech to the Caladan Assembly
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%
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It is true that one may become rich through practicing evil, but the power of
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Truth and Justice is that they endure . . . and that a man can say of them,
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"They are a heritage from my father."
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-- Fifth Dynasty (Old Terra) calendar: The Wisdom of Ptahhotep
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%
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A man who persists in stalking game in a place where there is none may wait
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forever without finding any success. Persistence in search is not enough.
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-- Zensunni Wisdom of the Wanderings
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%
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The effective ruler punishes opposition while rewarding assistance; he shifts
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his forces in random fashion; he conceals major elements of his power; he sets
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up a rhythm of counter movement that keeps opponents off balance.
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-- WESTHEIMER ATREIDES, Elements of Leadership
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%
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The Universe operates on a basic principle of economics: everything has
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its cost. We pay to create our future, we pay for the mistakes of the past.
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We pay for every change we make . . . and we pay just as dearly if we
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refuse to change.
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-- Guild Bank Annals, Philosophical Register
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%
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The increasing variety and abundance of life itself vastly multiplies the
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number of niches available for life. The resulting system is a web of makers
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and users, eaters and eaten, collaborators and competitors.
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-- PARDOT KYNES, Report to Emperor Shaddam IV
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%
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To know what one ought to do is not enough.
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-- PRINCE RHOMBUR VERNIUS
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%
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Facts mean nothing when they are preempted by appearances.
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Do not underestimate the power of impression over reality.
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-- CROWN PRINCE RAPHAEL CORRINO, The Rudiments of Power
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%
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If you surrender, you have already lost. If you refuse to give up, though,
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no matter the odds against you, at least you have succeeded in trying.
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-- DUKE PAULUS ATREIDES
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%
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Dreams are as simple or as complicated as the dreamer.
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-- LIET-KYNES, In the Footsteps of My Father
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%
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Water is the image of life. We came from water, adapted from its
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all-encompassing presence . . . and we continue to adapt.
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-- IMPERIAL PLANETOLOGIST PARDOT KYNES
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%
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I stand in the sacred human presence. As I do now, so should you stand some
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day. I pray to your presence that this be so. Let the future remain uncertain
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for that is the canvas to receive our desires. Thus the human condition faces
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its perpetual tabula rasa. We possess no more than this moment where we
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dedicate ourselves continuously to the sacred presence we share and create.
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-- Bene Gesserit Benediction
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%
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I fought in great wars to defend the Imperium and slew many men in the
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Emperor's name. I attended Landsraad functions. I toured the continents of
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Caladan. I managed all the tedious business matters required to run a Great
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House. And still the best of times were those I spent with my son.
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-- DUKE PAULUS ATREIDES
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%
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Body and mind are two phenomena, observed under different conditions, but of
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one and the same ultimate reality. Body and mind are aspects of the living
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being. They operate within a peculiar principle of synchronicity wherein
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things happen together and behave as if they are the same . . . yet can be
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conceived of as separate.
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-- Staff Medical Manual, Ginaz School
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%
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The Universe is a place inaccessible, unintelligible, completely absurd . . .
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from which life -- especially rational life -- is estranged. There is no place
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of safety, or basic principle upon which the Universe depends. There are only
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transitory, masked relationships, confined within limited dimensions, and bound
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for inevitable change.
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-- Meditations from Bifrost Eyrie, Buddislamic Text
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%
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The Bene Gesserit tell no casual lies. Truth serves us better.
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-- BENE GESSERIT CODA
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%
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The man who gives in to adrenaline addiction turns against all humanity.
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He turns against himself. He runs away from the workable issues of life and
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admits a defeat which his own violent actions help to create.
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-- CAMMAR PILRU, Ixian Ambassador in Exile: Treatise on the Downfall of Unjust
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Governments
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%
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There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments.
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-- Bene Gesserit Axiom
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%
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Infinity attracts us like a floodlight in the night, blinding us to the
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excesses it can inflict upon the finite.
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-- Meditations from Bifrost Eyrie, Buddislamic Text
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%
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Love is the highest achievement to which any human may aspire.
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It is an emotion that encompasses the full depth of heart, mind, and soul.
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-- Zensunni Wisdom from the Wandering
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%
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It is possible to become intoxicated with rebellion for rebellion's sake.
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-- DOMINIC VERNIUS, Ecaz Memoirs
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%
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What is each man but a memory for those who follow?
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-- DUKE LETO ATREIDES
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%
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A man may fight the greatest enemy, take the longest journey, survive the most
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grievous wound -- and still be helpless in the hands of the woman he loves.
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-- Zensunni Wisdom from the Wandering
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%
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Political leaders often don't recognize the practical uses of imagination and
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innovative new ideas until such forms are thrust under their noses by bloody
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hands.
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-- CROWN PRINCE RAPHAEL CORRINO, Discourses on Galactic Leadership
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%
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Enemies strengthen you; allies weaken.
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-- EMPEROR ELROOD IX, Deathbed Insights
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%
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The mystery of life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be
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experienced.
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-- Meditations from Bifrost Eyrie, Buddislamic Text
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%
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The work to which we have set ourselves is the liberating of the imagination,
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and the harnessing of the imagination to man's physical creativity.
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-- FRIEDRE GINAZ, Philosophy of the Swordmaster
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%
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Nature has moved inexplicably backward and forward to produce this marvelous,
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subtle Spice. One is tempted to suggest that only divine intervention could
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possibly have produced a substance which in one aspect extends human life and
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in another opens the inner doors of the psyche to the wonders of Time and
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Creation.
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-- HIDAR FEN AJIDICA, Laboratory Notes on the Nature of Melange
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%
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Freedom is an elusive concept. Some men hold themselves prisoner even
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when they have the power to do as they please and go where they choose,
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while others are free in their hearts, even as shackles restrain them.
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-- Zensunni Wisdom from the Wandering
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%
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Heaven must be the sound of running water.
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-- Fremen Saying
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%
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Look inside yourself and you can see the universe.
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-- Zensunni Aphorism
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%
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Unceasing warfare gives rise to its own social conditions, which have been
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similar throughout the ages. One such condition is a permanent state of
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alertness to ward off attack. Another is the rule of the autocrat.
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-- CAMMAR PILRU, Ixian Ambassador in Exile: Treatise on the Downfall
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of Unjust Governments
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%
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Beneath a world -- in its rocks, its dirt and sedimentary overlays --
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there you find the planet's memory, the complete analog of its existence,
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its ecological memory.
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-- PARROT KYNES, An Arrakis Primer
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%
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A Duke must always take control of his household, for if he does not
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rule those closest to him, he cannot hope to govern a planet.
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-- DUKE PAULUS ATREIDES
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%
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We create our own future by our own beliefs, which control our actions.
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A strong enough belief system, a sufficiently powerful conviction,
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can make anything happen. This is how we create our consensus reality,
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including our gods.
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-- REVEREND MOTHER RAMALLO, Sayyadina of the Fremen
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%
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Challenge: Time?
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Answer: A brilliant, many-faceted gem.
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Challenge: Time?
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Answer: A dark stone, reflecting no visible light.
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-- Fremen wisdom, from The Riddle Game
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%
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It requires a desperate and lonely sort of courage to challenge the accepted
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wisdom upon which social peace of mind rests.
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-- CROWN PRINCE RAPHAEL CORRINO, In Defense of Change in the Face of Tradition
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%
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There is no such thing as a law of nature. There is only a series of laws
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relating to man's practical experience with nature. These are laws of man's
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activities. They change as man's activities change.
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-- PARROT KYNES, An Arrakis Primer
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%
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One uses power by grasping it lightly. To grasp with too much force is to be
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taken over by power, thus becoming its victim.
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-- Bene Gesserit Axiom
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%
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No one has yet determined the power of the human species . . . what it may
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perform by instinct, and what it may accomplish with rational determination.
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-- Mentat Objective Analysis of Human Capabilities
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%
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Power and deceit are tools of statecraft, yes. But remember that power deludes
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the ones who wield it -- making them believe it can overcome the defects of
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their ignorance.
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-- COUNT FLAMBERT MUTELLI, early speech in Landsraad Hall of Oratory
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%
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Never be in the company of anyone with whom you would not want to die.
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-- Fremen Saying
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%
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If a man can accept his sin, he can live with it. If a man cannot accept
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personal sin, he suffers unbearable consequences.
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-- Meditations from Bifrost Eyrie, Buddislamic Text
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%
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The capacity to learn is a gift; The ability to learn is a skill; The
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willingness to learn is a choice.
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-- REBEC OF GINAZ
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%
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How to define the Kwisatz Haderach? The male who is everywhere simultaneously,
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the only man who can truly become the greatest human of all of us, mingling
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masculine and feminine ancestry with inseparable power.
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-- Bene Gesserit Azhar Book
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%
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You carve wounds upon my flesh and write there in salt!
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-- Fremen Lament
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%
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The stone is heavy and the sand weighty; but a fool's wrath is heavier than
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them both.
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-- DUKE LETO ATREIDES
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%
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Innovation and daring create heroes. Mindless adherence
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to outdated rules creates only politicians.
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-- VISCOUNT HUNDRO MORITANI
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%
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How easily grief becomes anger, and revenge gains arguments.
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-- PADISHAH EMPEROR HASSIK III, Lament for Salusa Secundus
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%
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Paradise on my right, Hell on my left, and the Angel of Death behind me.
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-- Fremen Conundrum
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%
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If God wishes thee to perish, He causes thy steps to
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lead thee to the place of thy demise.
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-- Cant of the Shariat
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%
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Treachery and quick-thinking will defeat hard-and-fast rules any day.
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Why should we be afraid to seize the opportunities we see?
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-- VISCOUNT HUNDRO MORITANI, Response to Landsraad Court Summons
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%
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All technology is suspect, and must be considered potentially dangerous.
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-- BUTLERIAN JIHAD, Handbook for Our Grandchildren
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%
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The seats of power inevitably try to harness any new knowledge to their own
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desires. But knowledge can have no fixed desires -- neither in the past nor in
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the future.
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-- DMITRI HARKONNEN, Lessons for My Sons
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%
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The haughty do but build castle walls behind which they try to hide their
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doubts and fears.
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-- Bene Gesserit Axiom
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%
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The individual is the key, the final effective unit of all biological processes.
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-- PARDOT KYNES
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%
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Good leadership is largely invisible. When everything runs smoothly, no one
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notices a Duke's work. That is why he must give the people something to cheer,
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something to talk about, something to remember.
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-- DUKE PAULUS ATREIDES
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%
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War, as the foremost ecological disaster of any age, merely reflects the larger
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state of human affairs in which the total organism called "humanity" finds its
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existence.
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-- PARDOT KYNES, Reflections on the Disaster at Salusa Secundus
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%
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Beware the seeds you sow and the crops you reap. Do not curse God for the
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punishment you inflict upon yourself.
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-- Orange Catholic Bible
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%
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Every man dreams of the future, though not all of us will be there to see it.
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-- TIO HOLTZMAN, Speculations on Time and Space
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%
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Knowledge is pitiless.
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-- Orange Catholic Bible
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%
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The greatest and most important problems of life cannot be solved.
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They can only be outgrown.
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-- SISTER JESSICA, private journal entry
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%
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Why look for meaning where there is none?
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Would you follow a path you know leads nowhere?
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-- Query of the Mentat School
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%
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Humans must never submit to animals.
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-- Bene Gesserit Teaching
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%
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To keep from dying is not the same as "to live."
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-- Bene Gesserit Saying
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%
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We are always human and carry the whole burden of being human.
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-- DUKE LETO ATREIDES
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%
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No one person can ever know everything that is in the heart of another.
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We are all Face Dancers in our souls.
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-- Tleilaxu Secret Handbook
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|
%
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|
We as humans tend to make pointless demands of our universe, asking meaningless
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questions. Too often we make such queries after developing an expertise within
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a frame of reference which has little or no relationship to the context in
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which the question is asked.
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-- Zensunni Observation
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%
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The ego is only a bit of consciousness swimming upon the ocean of dark things.
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We are an enigma unto ourselves.
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|
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-- The Mentat Handbook
|
|
%
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|
The individual is shocked by the overwhelming discovery of his own mortality.
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The species, however, is different. It need not die.
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-- PARDOT KYNES, An Arrakis Primer
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%
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The man faced with a life-and-death decision must commit himself,
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or he will remain caught in the pendulum.
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-- From "In My Father's House," by the Princess Irulan
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%
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|
Love is an ancient force, one that served its purpose in its day but is no
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longer essential for the survival of the species.
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-- Bene Gesserit Axiom
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%
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|
How will I be remembered by my children? This is the true measure of a man.
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-- ABULURD HARKONNEN
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%
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Some say that the anticipation of a thing is better than the thing itself.
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In my view, this is utter nonsense. Any fool can imagine a prize.
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|
I desire the tangible.
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-- HASIMIR FENRING, Letters from Arrakis
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%
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Though death will cancel it, life in this world is a glorious thing.
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-- DUKE PAULUS ATREIDES
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%
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